Recent Research:
With Chris Bader and Kittye Hirsch.
Desecration, Moral Boundaries, and the Movement of Law: The Case of
Westboro Baptist Church.Deviant Behavior
36(1):42-67.Abstract: Using participant observation,
in-depth interviews, and legislative histories, we examine Westboro
Baptist Church, a religious group infamous for homophobic rhetoric
and funeral protests. Employing cultural and interactionist
perspectives that focus on the semiotics of death, the sacred, and
desecration, we outline how Westboro's activities purposively
violate deeply held signifiers of moral order through language,
while simultaneously respecting extant laws of behavior. This
strategy, in conjunction with the political profitability of
opposing the group, explains why the group's activism triggered
extensive legal disputes at multiple levels of governance.
Westboro's actions and use of symbols--and those of others against
the group--lay bare multiple threads in the sacred cultural fabric
of American society.

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